Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Knox, K. R.
• Bozin, E. S.
• Malliakas, C. D.
• Kanatzidis, M. G.
• Billinge, S. J. L.

Titel

Local off-centering symmetry breaking in the high-temperature regime of SnTe

Ist Teil von

• Physical review. B, Condensed matter and materials physics, 2014-01, Vol.89 (1), Article 014102

Erscheinungsjahr

2014

Quelle

PROLA - Physical Review Online Archive

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The local structure of SnTe has been studied using atomic pair distribution function analysis of x-ray and neutron data. Evidence is found for a locally distorted high-temperature state, which emerges on warming from an undistorted rocksalt structure. The structural distortion appears rapidly over a relatively narrow temperature range from 300 to 400 K. A similar effect has been reported in PbTe and PbS and dubbed emphanisis; here we report on emphanisis in a compound that does not contain Pb. The analysis suggests that this effect is unrelated to the low-temperature ferroelectric state in SnTe.